GOP flips House, Dems keep Senate

Last night was truly a big night for Republicans. They are certain to take at least 60 seats in the House and six in the Senate (Colorado and Washington are still being counted, but look unlikely to be GOP pick-ups). Most of the bigger victories for the GOP in the House came from the East Coast, Midwest and the South.

Over in the Senate, Republicans failed to take advantage of vulnerable incumbents. Christine O’Donnell’s candidacy was a disaster from the start and Sharron Angle was a terrible candidate that couldn’t defeat an equally terrible candidate in Sen. Harry Reid.

Ken Buck was unable to take down Sen. Michael Bennet (though the GOP in that state seems to have some serious problems), who was nearly picked off in the Democratic primary. And Joe Miller appears likely to lose to Lisa Murkowski, who ran an effective write-in campaign.

Many are saying that the tea party movement was sucessful last night. While that’s true in some cases (such as Rand Paul and Pat Toomey), it’s not in others. The results for tea party candidates is mixed, at least on the Senate side.